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Ever since the internet appeared, many things changed from the way people look for information, to the way they learn or find entertainment, etc. Internet has practically made the barriers fade, while connecting the world and offering thousands of opportunities for people and companies.

It is not rare that the Internet has helped an industry as voice over. In the past, the traditional industry for voice-overs was only available to a select few. It was, only a few years ago, an industry primarily dominated by a few top agents in NYC, LA, Chicago and London.

Experts consider that the origin of voice over comes from more than a hundred years ago when, Reginald Fessenden, a mathematician and inventor, delivered the first voice over report tests for the United States Weather Bureau. A few decades later, both Warner Bros and Walt Disney started working with voice over too, helping this method become popular.

Nonetheless, it is internet that probably helped voice over’s expansion more than anything. These days, voice actors are not only needed for English-language recordings. With Spanish considered as a world language as much as English and Chinese, the need for Spanish voice actors is also growing, as well as the need for Chinese speakers and in some other languages.

In fact, a lot has changed since the earliest days of voice recording. As the Internet evolved, one of the major challenges was how to propagate the changes to the software, particularly the host software and later, some roles were added, being one of these roles which would help voice over.

The World Wide Web brought the idea of a community, as many people started to see themselves as network researchers and developers. Later, with the commercialization of the Internet, not only competitive private network services started developing, but also commercial products implementing the Internet technology.

As technology kept evolving, computers were not only able to reproduce sounds, but also to record them and more devices were developed to have a better quality. Computers no longer were big devices with separate parts that belonged in an office, some smaller models were developed, which integrated new functions and better qualities.

In the 1990s, ISDN was a mainstay, personal computers entered into the mainstream and the Internet became part of everyday life. With new and considerably less expensive technology available to the masses. This made it possible that almost everyone gained the possibility and ability to both, create and record their own voice. Back then, MP3s and CDs started becoming more and more popular.

A few years later, some devices were able to enhance the quality and now the equipment is perhaps more reachable than ever, which means less costs for a better quality. Now people can record at home with some basic pieces like microphones, accessories, computer, software, speakers or headphones. Of course, there are some extras and a voice over company has a much more competitive equipment, often with the last versions of software and devices.

However, this has not stopped people from starting their own records. The availability of pervasive networking (i.e., the Internet) along with powerful affordable computing and communications in portable form (i.e., laptop computers, two-way pagers, PDAs, cellular phones), is making possible a new paradigm of nomadic computing and communications, which has a huge impact in the voice over industry.

Given the fact that barriers are less of a problem than decades ago due to the Internet and globalization, there are big opportunities for voice over now. Social media plays an important role in marketing nowadays and this scenario is not unrelated to the voice over industry. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn are crucial now for almost every company. It is the era in which presence online is as important (or sometimes even more) than presence in ‘the real world’.

A voice over company that wants to attract clients has to speak to them through various channels. It is not only emailing that counts, but also the web page (probably the first sight the clients will have of the company), the different social media and information shared through blogs. Content marketing is becoming quite popular and it is not weird to find blogs with news, interviews and more content about voice over.

Being good and having a good quality are not the only necessities now. Especially in an industry such as voice over, clients want to feel they can trust the company. Part of this trust involves, of course, the quality of the audios itself, but giving information about why the company is the right match is a good approach.

Another important way in which Internet has changed the scheme of voice over has to do with resources and investigation. Thanks to Internet, companies can hire talents from all over the world, instead of having to wait days or even months for a reply on the mail, people are used to a much more immediate way of communication, an email can be replied some minutes after or maximum a few days. In the same way this makes connections between voice over talents and companies more effective and fast, this also helps to connect the companies with the clients. Whether a client needs voice over for educational purposes, marketing, TV, etc, the client has access to a wide range of companies offering voice over services, which makes the industry more competitive. Something that is good for voice over companies themselves, because they can develop and grow, and for the client because the services they are offered are being improved.

Additionally, the Internet has helped voice over to reduce costs due to the facilities of finding the right talents from anywhere in world without actually having to travel there, or having a software just by downloading it after a payment, instead of having to travel to a specific country to get it, etc.

In the end, voice over has not only spread more rapidly due to the Internet, but has also evolved ever since this involves changing the way of communication, having access to more resources and even better technology; and reducing costs.